Words and photos by Mark Richards

On the longest day, 21 June, I set off for a trip around London. The plan, if it could be called that, was to visit the extremities of the network and in the course of doing so visiting places that I have not been too by rail. In addition, the aim was to do this as cheaply as possible, so most of my travels were completed on a One Day Travelcard. My journey would take me from Buckinghamshire, across Central London, back out to Buckinghamshire again and then to the fringes of Surrey before striking out east on the DLR. This is a brief report of my travels and photos taken on the day.
 

The day started rather grimly with a persistent drizzle as I made my way to Bletchley for the 0757 London Midland service to London Euston. With the West Coast Main Line blocked at Rugby for engineering works in connection with the lines upgrade, Virgin were running a shuttle service between London and Northampton. Unusually the Pendolino's were observed using Bletchley Junction to the south of the station to cross from the down fast to the down slow and vice versa in the up direction. I noted 390046 Virgin Soldiers and 390014 City of Manchester using this junction while I waited for my train. As far as I am aware Bletchley Junction is rarely used by passenger services as most will use Ledburn Junction further to the south. Also noted while waiting for my service was EWS-liveried 92001 heading towards London on a containers train.

Arrival into London was slightly ahead of schedule and routed via the fast line south of Watford Junction, passing 92001 again at Wembley. Noted running light engine at Wembley was 66207 whilst recorded in the yard area were 66140, 90026 and 66051. At Euston EWS 90018 was at the buffers on Platform 1 with the Caledonian Sleeper whilst 90039 had arrived at the ‘country’ end to take the empty stock to Wembley. Virgin’s 57306 Jeff Tracy was stabled between platforms 16 and 17, where it remained all day. A couple of Silverlink 321s were also stabled on the far-side of the station in Platform 18. Euston was very quiet, even some of the concessions on the concourse remained closed all day and the PA was directing people to alternative London termini for destinations north. No mention could be seen of the proposed Virgin service from Birmingham International and Euston via the Chiltern line due to start on 28 June 2008. 

From Euston my first trip of the day in London was on the 68 bus to Waterloo, a route that I came familiar with during my brief time working in London last year. A stop at Ian Allan’s before taking the Bakerloo to Embankment from where it was the District Line out to Earl’s Court. I arrived here just in time for the fire alarm test! The service form Earl’s Court to Kensington (Olympia) – the addition of the brackets I had not noticed before – was not running so it was a brisk walk round to West Brompton to see Cross Country-liveried 220013 heading north on the 0915 Brighton to Birmingham New Street. 

I took the London Overground from West Brompton to Willesden Junction (High Level) and then back towards Central London on the Bakerloo (again) to Marylebone. Comfort break here and a chance to get photos of Chiltern’s 165 and 168s plus 67023 and 67025 top and tailing WSMR’s 1215 service to Wrexham. Marylebone was a good deal busier than Euston and I had about half-hour before my train to Harrow-on-the-Hill. A brief leg stretch at Harrow-on-the-Hill before joining the Metropolitan Line to Amersham, the furthest extent of the Underground going west; LU have a pair of turn-back sidings to the west of the station. Amersham is also served by Chiltern Railways on the line to Aylesbury.

After a brief stop in Amersham it was back into Central London via the Metropolitan and Jubilee and ultimately the Victoria to take me to Victoria station for the 1420 Southern service to Epsom, which I alighted from at Mitcham Eastfields. This station has only recently opened and in a joint-promotion Southern and First Capital Connect were offering free tickets to selected destinations from here. Finding this out was more by chance, as it only appeared to be advertised on the Southern web site and presumably in the local press; there was certainly no publicity at the station and the ticket machine seemed happy to sell full-priced tickets, although free ones were available from the ticket office adjacent! The station was built to a modular design and looks smart and functional. The lifts on the footbridge were not working and crossing between the two staggered platforms over the very busy Eastfields Road is far from ideal. The best opportunity appears to be waiting for a train and then taking your chances while the gates are down!

A round about trip via Sutton took me back to London Bridge with a stop in East Croydon for a quick tram ride and some more photos. From London Bridge it was a short hop on the Northern Line to Bank to pick up the Docklands Light Railway, which took me, via a change at Westferry to Beckton. This is the first time that I have travelled the full length of this leg of the DLR, previously only being as far as Custom House and means that I’ve now completed the whole network, although there will of course be the extension to Woolwich Arsenal, due to open in 2009. The two DLR stations at Beckton Park and Cyprus are worthy of note as they are built in the hollowed out sections of roundabouts at sub-surface level! Next time I will need to get off and take pictures of these unusual stations.

From Beckton, more by luck than planning I managed to find a bus stop and from there a bus to take me to Stratford for the Central Line back to Holborn. My final journey for the day was from Holborn on the bus to Euston in time for the 1854 to Northampton. This was formed of 321420 and 321430. The 321s are beginning to look rather shabby especially as they are shorn of any company identification since London Midland has not applied any branding after removing the Silverlink Trains names. Presumably as they are likely to be all withdrawn in the next 12 months, no attention will be made now to providing the LM colours or branding these units. Some still retain Silverlink Trains branding on posters inside although most of these have either been blanked out or replaced with London Midland stickers. The 321s are due to be replaced next year by more 350s with some of the 321s expected to go to First Capital Connect, so they could well be still serving London for a good many years yet. 

All this was achieved on an ordinary One Day Travelcard with Oyster pay-as-you-go used for the journeys on the Underground outside of Zone 6. If I’d had more time journeys up the Chesham and Watford branches of the Metropolitan Line would have been done but alas these will have to wait till next time!